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Table Of Contents

Introduction

Where History Comes Alive!

The Jenny Wade, as seen in the August issue of the Ohio Magazine, offers what no other Bed and Breakfast can; personal time with historical figures.

You can choose to do nothing at all at The Jenny Wade Bed and Breakfast or for a small additional fee, you can eat breakfast with General Eisenhower or perhaps you would rather have tea with General Washington.

Amenities

Mary Virginia (Jenny) Wade - Her Story

The Civil War was a time of great tragedy for the United States - and great drama. A small, but very poignant story during this great conflict from the pivotal battle of Gettysburg is about a young 20 year-old girl killed during the three-day battle. Mary Virginia "Jenny" Wade was helping her mother make bread in her sister's little red brick house located in the middle of the fighting. She was struck down by a Confederate sharpshooter's bullet on the morning of July 3,1863. Unknown to Jenny, her childhood sweetheart, Corporal "Jack"Skelly was, at that very hour, suffering from mortal wounds inflicted during the Battle of Winchester, Virginia. Both lovers never knew of the fate of the other.

The wounded Skelly, as he lay in a hospital bed outside of Winchester, was able with the help of another childhood friend, Wesley Culp, to write his beloved Jenny a farewell letter before he died. Culp, whose Confederate division was heading toward the Gettysburg area happened to see the wounded Skelly laying along the side of the road and had his close friend carried to a hospital. It was just before Culp left with his division that Jack gave him the letter to Jenny. Jack insisted that Wesley give the letter to no one except his beloved. The letter never reached Jenny and was buried with the body of Culp at the foot of a hill outside of Gettysburg. We know the letter existed because the evening Culp's division reached Gettysburg, he had a chance to visit his family who were well within the Confederate lines and shared with them the story about Jack and the letter. He refused, however, to give it to any of them.

Four months later in November of 1863, when Lincoln went to Gettysburg to dedicate the soldiers' cemetery, he was told about the story of Jenny Wade and how she had been killed while baking bread for Union Soldiers. Lincoln was so moved and touched by this story that he asked Jenny's sister, Georgia, to sit beside him on the platform while he delivered his Gettysburg Address. The Jenny Wade Bed & Breakfast House (circa 1859) is named in honor of her service and sacrifice to our great Nation during the Civil War. The information on Jenny Wade was obtained from Kenneth Hammontree's book "There Was A Time," the story of Jenny Wade.